Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland wins two rural industry awards including for work in Cairngorms National Park
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A project to improve public access throughout Scotland's two national parks has won recognition at a rural awards showcase.
The Mountains and The People, run by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) in the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national parks, won at the Scottish Land and Estates' Helping it Happen Awards, along with another of its schemes on Skye.
Outdoor access charity OATS, which previously completed the £2.1 million Cairngorm Mountain Heritage project to make paths more durable on the main Cairngorm massif, won two of the nine categories at the awards last Wednesday.
The Mountains and The People, the largest and most complex upland path project ever undertaken in the UK, won the Enhancing our Environment through Land Management Award, sponsored by NatureScot.
The £5.6 million scheme, core funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, was inspired, initiated, planned and built by OATS.
It created and rebuilt footpaths on some of the Highlands’ most noted hills, across Scotland’s two national parks, repairing environmental damage caused by walkers.
One of the most notable fixes, the charity says, was the prominent path scar on the front of Carn Liath on Beinn a’ Ghlo, north of Pitlochry, which could be easily seen from the main A9 road four miles away. After £264,000-worth of work it is now an unobtrusive but well-defined path which protects the surrounding environment and is enjoyable to walk.
Paths in the Angus Glens such as those up the Munros, Mayar and Driesh, and the popular Jock’s Road, have also been fixed, alongside routes on Deeside and others in Highland Perthshire and around Crianlarich and Tyndrum.
OATS brought together agencies, and, crucially, won support from multiple landowners at 43 diverse sites. The project completed 120km of paths over six years. It trained 36 path-builders and attracted help from volunteers across Scotland.
The Fairy Pools car park and toilets development project on Skye, in which OATS provided a unique solution to a local problem created by the global phenomenon of social media-driven tourism, won the Tourism and Visitor Management Award, sponsored by GLM.
The focus of the Helping it Happen Awards is on recognising the role estates, farms and rural businesses play in enabling and supporting success in rural communities, rural businesses and rural landscapes, showing how rural businesses help Scotland to thrive.
Duncan Bryden, chairman of the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, said: “We thank SLE and the judges for these awards and hope they will help raise the OATS profile amongst landowners, managers and communities across Scotland and show that we are a small but highly effective charity capable of delivering and operating innovative solutions to access challenges.”
Dougie Baird, CEO of the trust, said: “We are delighted that two of our most recent collaborative projects, and all those who have been essential to their success, have been recognised by Scottish Land and Estates.
“To win in these two categories at SLE’s Helping it Happen Awards 2022 highlights the positive work we do developing, building and fixing upland and lowland paths, path networks, habitats and trailhead facilities in popular, remote, and fragile places; supporting outdoors enthusiasts, land managers and local communities.”
